New Delhi
The history of India’s freedom struggle extends far beyond the conventional narrative of the national movement. Across the country, tribal and peasant communities were also responding to the political, social and economic changes brought by colonial rule, giving rise to numerous movements of resistance.
The Tana Bhagat movement was one such significant expression of indigenous resistance. Emerging from the Oraon community of the Chotanagpur region of British India, particularly in present-day Jharkhand, the movement reflected the complex ways in which tribal society responded to changes in land, authority, religion and everyday life.
Origins, Society And Agricultural Reforms
The Tana Bhagat movement began in 1914, when Jatra Oraon of Gumla proclaimed that he had received a divine message from Dharmes, the God of the Oraons, to initiate a new religion in the form of the Tana sect. The new sect sought to free the community from social practices that its followers regarded as evils, including belief in ghosts, animal sacrifice and liquor consumption. The Tana Bhagats asserted their independence from the established social and religious order. They did not depend on Oraon priests or the Mahto, the village representative, and rejected the established ways of worshipping the deities of the Oraon religion.
Jatra Bhagat also claimed that those who did not follow his message would be struck dumb. The movement soon took on a strong social and economic dimension. The Tana Bhagats opposed the zamindars by refusing to work as agricultural labourers, breaking ploughs and declining to pay rent to the British government or local rajas. The disciples were mobilised around the belief that God would provide for them: a single piece of rice would fill their stomachs and a small tract of land would be sufficient for the entire community. As part of this process of purification and rejection of the existing order, followers of the Tana sect were also asked to discard household possessions and throw agricultural tools and ornaments into the river.
The movement’s opposition to the prevailing order, however, cannot be separated from the deeper changes taking place within Oraon society. British authorities misunderstood the community’s internal hierarchies and, in the process, contributed to further differentiation among its members. They directly promoted the interests of the Bhuinhars, the dominant group in Oraon society, by assigning them administrative responsibilities.
These developments were opposed by the disciples of Jatra Bhagat, whose ideas were closely connected to the community’s earlier relationship with shifting agriculture. As settled agriculture expanded, they saw not only a transformation of their traditional way of life but also a threat to their future. The introduction of new land laws and the distribution of land to the elite further intensified their grievances. Together, these changes created an environment in which the Tana Bhagat movement took shape.
The Tana protest was therefore directed not only at colonial authority but also at traditional leadership within the Oraon community. It challenged established hierarchies and was linked to questions surrounding ritual practices, agricultural festivities and the return to shifting cultivation. In this sense, the movement represented a wider challenge to the hierarchical structure that had developed within the landed Oraon community.
Colonial Intervention And Changing Agrarian Order
The arrival of the British in the Chotanagpur region brought significant changes to the existing rural order and created new conditions for resistance. In their efforts to establish local administrative and judicial structures, the colonial authorities introduced new hierarchies within the community. In 1809, under the magistrate of Ramgarh, a police station was established, an institution that stood in contrast to the traditional customs of the community.
The British also sought to establish a closely interconnected system linking land, capital and markets in the region. In 1823, excise duties were imposed as an important source of revenue. By 1833, further administrative reforms had taken place, while the appointment of a Governor General and subsequent measures to strengthen administrative control and revenue collection further transformed the region.
These changes had consequences for the relationship between landholders and tenants. They contributed to growing conflicts between zamindars and tenants, while new administrative and legal mechanisms increasingly brought land and customary rights within the colonial system.
The Bhuinhari Act II was passed in 1869, followed by a British survey conducted between 1869 and 1880. The survey was subsequently extended to the Ranchi region between 1902 and 1910, while the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act was finalised in 1908. The cumulative effect of these administrative and legal changes was a rise in land prices, land transactions and registered mortgages. This, in turn, created opportunities for traders and moneylenders — including Mahajans, Sahus, Banias and Zamindars — to invest in land and participate in tenancy markets.
While zamindars had long been involved in the land market, Sahus and Banias emerged as particularly prominent participants in the land and credit markets. As professional moneylenders and village merchants, they increasingly became part of an economic system that was reshaping relations over land and indebtedness.
Land, Power And The Bhuinhari Divide
The transformation of the land system also brought existing customary rights into greater conflict with the emerging colonial structure. Existing land rights, including manjhihas, the tenures of landlords, and Rajhas, the tenancies of ryots, reflected older customary and community rights over land. Although these rights had been recognised, land remained under the control of the Bhuinhars, who also served as informants for the colonial government.
Traditionally, vacant lands were under the control of the Mahto and Pahan belonging to the Bhuinhar community, who settled disputes relating to raiyati lands. The British consequently viewed them as the natural leaders of the Oraon community. From the colonial perspective, this contributed to the perception of Chotanagpur as a two-tiered society.
British intervention in this existing social structure gave the Bhuinhars greater opportunities to assert their claims over land, blood and family. As land became increasingly valuable for economic security, the Bhuinhars also attempted to bring more land under their control.
The resulting struggle over land rights deepened divisions within Oraon society between Bhuinaris and non-Bhuinaris. The Tana Bhagats, who belonged to the non-Bhuinari group as non-occupants and under-ryots, opposed the Bhuinari settlement and other groups exercising control over land rights.
Thus, what began as a movement questioning religious practices and social authority increasingly became intertwined with the struggle over land and customary rights. The emerging conflict took new forms as Tanas discarded household life and agricultural land and moved towards the Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Palamau regions while continuing to practise their faith and traditions.
(Amit Kumar is a political analyst and a Post Graduate Member of the Royal Historical Society, London. Views expressed are personal.)
PART-2 to continue…
